It appears that the fire started in a garage and may have spread to at least one other garage, investigators said.

"I heard some popping, I thought it was fireworks," said neighbor Jim Holding. "I (saw) flames about 15 feet over the top of that garage and I got my wife up, got dressed and ran outside."

The owner of the garage did not want to talk to WISN 12 News on camera, but said he tried to save his Jeep.

By daylight, it was clear the garage and the Jeep were destroyed. The siding on several neighbors' homes was melted.

Some neighbors said it felt like forever until help arrived.

"From the time we received it, our dispatch center until the time we were on scene was about 4 minutes," said Battalion Chief Gary Posda.

The fire department said it received a number of phone calls for the garage fire, but they weren't getting an exact address.

"They said there's a fire on Packard Ave., just off of Packard. Well, Packard goes the whole length of Cudahy and so we have to narrow that down by asking more and more questions. And then the caller has to look for an address to finally get us to the correct location," said Posda.

Posda also said many of the calls came from cellphones which go to the sheriff's department first and can also cause a slight delay in response time.

Fire officials said the cause of the fire is still being investigated.